Ship in Suez Canal has been freed

While welcoming the news that the ship blocking the Suez Canal has been refloated and moved, shipping giant Maersk warned the impact of the closure will continue for several weeks as the backlog works its way through the ports.

In an advisory, Maersk said it has decided to turn around two its vessels that had been redirected around the Cape of Good Hope, sending them back to the Suez Canal.

There are still 422 ships waiting to go through the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal Authority decided the ships will be able to cross the canal on a first come first serve basis, though the ships carrying livestock were permitted to cross in the first convoy of the day, he said.

While the ship blocking the Suez Canal has just been fully dislodged, the shipping crisis the days-long blockage caused isn’t over yet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a satellite image showing cargo ships backed up, waiting to enter the Suez Canal this evening, hours after authorities said the stuck ship had been freed.

You can see the ships in the image below. They’re the tiny white dots lined up around the canal:

Tugboats and vessels are seen sailing on the Suez Canal, shortly before the "Ever Given" container ship operated by the Evergreen Marine Corporation, was fully freed and floated, on March 29.

Ships stranded in the Suez Canal will restart their journeys after the Ever Given anchors in the Great Bitter Lake, a Suez Canal Official told CNN on Monday.

“As soon as the ship reaches the waiting place in the Bitter Lakes…the 43 ships waiting in the Bitter Lakes will begin to move south towards the Gulf of Suez,” the source said.

The ships will be traveling in convoys northbound and southbound of the Suez Canal, as the Ever Given stands by for inspections.?

The average number of ships that transited through the canal on a daily basis before the accident was between 80 to 90 ships, according to Lloyds List; however, the head of the Suez Canal Authority said that the channel will work 24 hours to facilitate the passage of almost 400 ships carrying billions of dollars in freight.

The journey to cross the canal takes 10 to 12 hours, and in the event the channel operates for 24 hours, two convoys per day will be able to successfully pass.

Still, shipping giant, Maersk issued an advisory telling customers it could take “6 days or more” for the queue created by the Suez Canal blockage to clear. The company said that was an estimate and subject to change as more vessels reach the blockage or are diverted.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies shows the Ever Given, the container ship that has been stuck in the Suez Canal, moving away from the eastern bank of the canal.

Earlier today, a Suez Canal Authority spokesperson told CNN the ship blocking the Suez Canal had been fully dislodged.

Here’s a look:

People watch as the container ship 'Ever Given' is refloated, unblocking the Suez Canal in Egypt, on March 29.

The chartered Ever Given vessel will be repositioned to the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal for an inspection of its seaworthiness, the charter company, Evergreen, said.

The container ship is currently moving to allow the normal resumption of traffic in the Suez Canal, the statement said.?

The ship was refloated at 9 a.m. ET – 3 p.m. Egypt Standard Time – according to Evergreen.

“Evergreen will coordinate with the shipowner to deal with subsequent matters after the shipowner and other concerned parties complete investigation reports into the incident,” the statement added.

The salvage company which helped in the efforts to free a ship blocking the Suez Canal said in a statement, “We pulled it off!”?

Videos show the ship floating in the Suez Canal after the bow was freed following intense tugging efforts Monday morning.

The ship is currently being tugged toward the Great Bitter Lake where it will park for inspections and an investigation, the head of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie said, according to state-run Al Ahram newspaper.?

Marine traffic showed the ship moving at a speed of 1.5 knots north toward the Great Bitter Lake.?

The container ship 'Ever Given' is seen moving in the Suez Canal, Egypt, on March 29.

The ship blocking the Suez Canal has been fully dislodged on Monday afternoon, a Suez Canal Authority spokesperson told CNN.?

Tugs were working to free the bow of the ship after dislodging the stern Monday morning.?

Marine traffic websites showed images of the ship away from the banks of the Suez Canal for the first time in seven days.

Egypt state TV showed the ship fully floating.?

A view of the 'Ever-Given' container ship as it remains lodged sideways impeding traffic across Egypt's Suez Canal waterway, on March 29.

Authorities have temporarily suspended efforts to free the front of the Ever Given container ship as the window for high tide faded on Monday afternoon, Egyptian local media said.?

A live shot on state media showed tug boats pulling the ship in an attempt to free the front or bow, which is still stuck “rock solid” as per the description of the CEO of a salvage company working to free the ship, Peter Berdowski.

The efforts to pull the ship out will resume later in the day, a reporter said on a local media newscast.

Despite the delay in fully dislodging the ship, Egypt’s President issued a statement Monday saying “Egyptians have successfully managed to end the crisis of the stranded ship.”

“[Egyptians] were able to get things back on track,” he said in a presidential statement on Facebook.

Dozens of ships that planned to travel through the?Suez?Canal?are instead rerouting to the Cape of Good Hope around Africa, adding 8 days of sailing time and expending an additional 500 tons or so of fuel, Lloyds List Intelligence said.

However, more than 350 ships carrying billions of dollars’ worth of freight still await transit through the?canal.?

It could take days for the backlogged ships to successfully transit, but the head of the?Suez?Canal?Authority said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that “they will work 24 hours” a day to allow the vessels to transit.

The maximum passages per day on average through the?Suez?Canal?for the past three months were 80 to 90 vessels, as per data from Lloyds List.

Stranded ships wait in queue in the Gulf of Suez to cross the Suez Canal at its southern entrance near the Red Sea port city of Suez on March 27, as the waterway remains blocked by the Panama-flagged container ship "MV Ever Given".

Shipping Giant Maersk has issued an advisory telling customers it could take “6 days or more” for the queue created by the Suez canal blockage to pass. The company said that was an estimate and subject to change as more vessels reach the blockage or are diverted.?

Maersk currently has 3 vessels stuck in the canal, 30 waiting to enter and has redirected 15 to Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

Maersk expects the long term impact of the blockage could take months to resolve. “Even when the canal gets reopened, the ripple effects on global capacity and equipment are significant and the blockage has already triggered a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel.”?

A handout picture released by the Suez Canal Authority on March 29, 2021, shows tugboats pulling the Panama-flagged MV 'Ever Given' container ship lodged sideways impeding traffic across Egypt's Suez Canal waterway.

The?Ever Given container ship?has been partially dislodged after blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week, authorities say, but efforts to fully refloat it are likely to continue for some time.

There were promising signs early Monday when the rear of the vessel was freed from one of the canal’s banks, but the boss of the Dutch company working on the operation says its bow is still stuck “rock solid.”

Egyptian officials struck a more optimistic note, saying that crews plan to refloat the vessel later Monday. But the shipping crisis that has dominated headlines and captured the world’s attention for a?week appears destined to continue.

About the ship: The Ever Given, a 224,000-ton vessel almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall, ran aground in the Egyptian canal on March 23. Crews from Egypt and around the world have been working nonstop to try to refloat the ship, with the operation involving 10 tug boats, sand dredges and salvage companies.

Previous efforts have failed — but this latest attempt is being executed during high tide where the water in the channel is at its highest.

The massive salvage effort has focused on dredging sand from below the front and rear of the ship, before pulling the ship with tugboats.

Rescue teams started digging deeper and closer to the ship on Sunday, with dredging reaching 18 meters (or about 59 feet) at the front of the ship, the SCA said in a statement. Over 27,000 cubic meters (953,000 cubic feet) of sand has been removed so far, said Rabie.

The rescue operation has intensified in both urgency and international attention as each day ticked by. Ships from around the world, carrying vital fuel and cargo, were blocked from entering the canal on both sides, raising alarm over the impact on global supply chains.